Chapter Twenty-Seven

 

Camina stood at the front of the platform waiting for Instructor Gomez and his team of second-year waku. The sounds of grunting drifted over the low-roofed buildings. The other groups were busy working through their exercises. She couldn't figure out why Gomez hadn't appeared yet.

When the dark-uniformed trainees came running onto the concrete pad, Camina immediately knew something was wrong. Instructor Gomez approached with his chin dipped towards his chest.

"Where's the rest of your team?"

Gomez stared back with his mouth half open. He checked over his shoulder before answering.

"You don't know?"

Anger formed in her belly. "Don't know what?"

Gomez swallowed. "Titus came and got half about an hour ago. I assumed you already knew. It's why we were late. We were rearranging the bunking situation under the assumption we'd be getting new recruits to fill in those that left."

"Titus got them? To take where?"

"He didn't say."

Gomez couldn't meet her gaze, which meant he'd been too afraid of the maetrie mercenary to ask questions. Or gobsmacked by his aura.

"Damn city fae," she muttered under her breath.

He gestured towards his team. "Should we begin our review?"

Camina barely heard him. She was thinking about why Titus might have coopted her trainees. This was one of the better groups as Instructor Gomez had proved to be an inspired teacher despite his inexperience.

"I need to find out what's going on. My apologies, Gomez. I was looking forward to this. Your team always performs above expectations."

His brown face brightened with a hesitant smile. "Thank you, Instructor Camina."

She left him as he led his team back to the other training area, heading for the main cavern where the Nest was located. It wasn't the first time that her trainees had been taken for mysterious purposes, but it'd always been in ones and twos. Grabbing half of a group, twenty entire trainees, deserved more than the non-explanation she'd gotten.

As she reached the other cavern, a few people recognized her and started to say hello, but quickly sensed she was in no mood. Camina went straight for the elevator at the base of the cliff. She hadn't been up it since she'd raided the location as a member of the Drops. The area had changed, that much she knew, because it'd been under construction for years. But it was the one place she knew she could find Titus Cabone and get an answer for what he'd done.

"You're not authorized," said the guard at the bottom of the elevator. "I'm sorry, Instructor Camina."

"Red?"

The guarded nodded, a partial smile trying to form. She remembered him from training. He gave it his best effort, but wasn't worth a shit. He punched like a wet noodle and looked like he was going to fall down every time he got hit. She would have never let him don the uniform of a waku had it not been for the directive to pass all her trainees.

"I run the Alliance Academy, Red. I'm authorized, whether or not they ever thought to mention it," she said.

He checked to his fellow guard, who clearly didn't want to be involved. She jabbed her thumb into the button.

"If they ask, tell them you tried to stop me," she said.

When the door opened, she stepped inside. A moment later, it lurched upward, giving her a good view of the bars and other businesses that had been given a home in the cavern. Only Alliance members were allowed in this part of the Undercity, but given how large the clan had gotten, it meant the place was packed at all hours of the day and night. The expansions to the west had been to put in stacked apartments to compensate for the newcomers.

The elevator opened revealing a completely different view than she'd expected. Except for the high-tech vault door, the complex had been utilitarian, barely above corporate offices. The ceiling had been raised and the entrance pushed back. Pillars led up exquisitely made stairs to a set of marble doors with scenes of battle carved into the front. She felt like she was wandering into ancient Greece, but instead of warriors in togas and holding spears, a pair of maetrie guards stood on either side of the door.

The first step was the hardest. She felt like she was pushing against an invisible membrane and a heady dizziness made it hard to think, but she managed to make it to the top and approached the guards. The black fitted armor looked like it was made with large overlapping scales and enchanted with fell magics.

"I need to see Titus."

Neither guard acknowledged her existence. They stared forward with a blank stare. Frustrated by the lack of response, she surged forward with her hand out. Her hand never touched the door. Without remembering how she got there, she found herself standing at the bottom of the steps, staring at the elevator. She recalled the guard speaking to her, but not what was said.

"Dammit."

She marched up the stairs only to find herself back where she'd started, a hazy cloud dissipating from her mind. Between the maetrie aura and the conditioning she'd received when she'd been made to join the Alliance, she felt incapable of controlling her actions around them.

Reluctantly, she climbed back into the elevator and returned to the ground floor. The human guards at the bottom were smart enough not to ask, or make a comment. She wasn't finished. Camina wanted answers. But she wasn't going to get them in the Nest.

The neon sign of the Eleventh Gonka buzzed in the cavern. While it wasn't "evening" there were three shifts of work for the Alliance, which meant the bars were filled at all hours of the day. She didn't think any matches for the tournament were going on, which meant most of the clan would be staying around the area. She went into the bar, which felt like nighttime due to the dim lighting and drunken relaxed faces inside. A group of sapphire waku were playing a game that involved pushing a shot glass around the table. Pandora found who she was looking for at the back bar, sitting alone, cradling a glass of amber liquid between his hands.

"Hey," said Deacon with half-lidded eyes. He looked ready to fall off his stool, which surprised her. His cheeks were cavernous.

"You okay?"

"Do you know how I joined the Crows? Well, not how, but why I didn't have anything better to do?" he asked.

"I came to ask a question."

Deacon chuckled under his breath and continued unabated. "I had a family once. I wasn't more than six or seven when they died. Some city mage accidentally blew up an apartment building. Killed 'em both. If I would have stayed around, maybe I would have been put in the system, but I'd been playing with my friends and I knew I didn't want to stay there. Didn't want to see them pulled out in body bags, or under white sheets, whatever. Lived on the streets after that until I joined the Crows. I've always been a survivor. I ain't giving up now."

He touched the right side of his chest as if it hurt, then downed the rest of his whiskey, sliding the glass to the bartender, who automatically refilled it.

"Something wrong?"

Deacon burst out laughing. "Wrong? No. We won." He seemed to remember who he was talking to and screwed up his face. "Sorry. I really liked being in Razor clan. Sometimes I feel bad for what happened."

"I don't really want to hear this," she said.

"You came to me."

Camina fell silent. She couldn’t decide if she felt pity or anger, and after the failed attempt to get answers from, or even find, Titus, she was in a foul mood.

"They took my trainees."

He seemed to come out of his daze. "Took your trainees?"

"Yeah, half of Instructor Gomez's group. Twenty new waku soon to graduate the Academy. Didn't tell me or anything. I get that I serve at the whims of Dominion Thule, but I've been working hard. Don’t I deserve an answer?"

She knew it was more than that, but it was the only part of it she was willing to admit.

"Don't ask questions if you don't want to know the answer. I wish someone would have told me that two years ago," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He held out both his arms, spilling whiskey.

"Not you."

"You don't think Thule has bigger plans than the Undercity? He's city fae. When you can live to be thousands of years old, you can play the long game."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"I wasn't the first and I won't be the last," he muttered as he placed the glass to his lips. After finishing half his whiskey, he slammed it down and put a finger in her chest. "Don't. Just don't."

"Don't what?"

"Exactly." He shooed her away. "Begone. Don’t..."

The words trailed off as he rested his head on the counter. He was still talking but she couldn't make sense of what he was saying. The two events, the loss of her trainees and Deacon's comments, left her uneasy. She'd thought that Dominion Thule had taken over the Undercity for the faez crystal trade, but now she worried that it was only the beginning. What could he be planning? And did it matter if she figured it out? It wasn't like she had friends anymore. As far as she knew, Yara and the others had left the Undercity. Which meant she was alone. Maybe it was time for her to find a new path. She wasn't sure if the compulsion would allow her to leave, but she thought it might be worth a try.